


Sweeter place

by FiveRaysOfSun



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Blood and Injury, Horror, M/M, Post-World War II, jbaek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 02:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20631500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveRaysOfSun/pseuds/FiveRaysOfSun
Summary: Jonghyun has been cursed with fearing the sunlight and having an appetite for blood. He hides in the woods far from town and Dongho is his only friend. He is scared of hurting him too, so he has to drive him away.





	Sweeter place

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this during a depressive episode, enjoy

A small town laid in middle of a thick forest surrounded by a lonely valley where trains rarely passed through sometimes. The people lead slow lives here still recovering from the great war almost a decade ago. 

War had gone over and ravaged nearby mountains, many who had lived here took refuge elsewhere, some never returned and their children later became orphans after the war. The local orphanage at the foothills of the mountain was over capacitated with such wards right after the end of the war.

However, the mountains that had remained untouched gave solace to the people who still lived here and passed their days here. Town was surrounded by lush woods crawling up steep, barely traversable mountains. Yet no one had tried to climb them after the war ended. Despite the picturesque mountain view of the fairytale like forest, many believed the once frequent planes passing low over the town could have dropped down explosives, but missed, so now they laid undetonated in those unexplored hills. While despite rumors of mines, some of oldest living folk from the town did not dare to step a foot in those forests for other reasons, they swore – a monster who only comes out at night, lives somewhere up there.

Muddy trail lead up into the hills, weeds and wet branch would break and snap under anyone’s feet trying to uncover the overgrown path. The wet dirt had easily become a slush under the tires of their bike right after the rainfall. A boy coming from the town was struggling to drive his rattling, mud covered bike up a steep creek. 

At the front of his steering wheel he had a basket stock filled full of things weighting the front on the bike down. It contained everything, from simple toiletries – soap and towels to newspapers and even books. At the very top sat a flowerpot, with small brittle flowers that would tremble, but hold on while the man diligently pushed his bike upwards with the loudest breaths.

One would assume that with this much resources the young boy was going to camp out somewhere deep into the forest, but no actual hiking trails went up these parts. The forest was full of ravines and drops. From afar, the veil of trees made it impossible to tell how rocky these hills actually were up here.

The trees above the head were so wide they almost blocked off the sky. In winter the naked branches would eerily loom over and stalk anyone walking under, they would look like a web, creak after rain and in the wind to produce the scariest sounds a forest could make.

The man found a spot where his feet could rest, he had reached a ridge of the hill where the slope wasn’t so steep and he could try and hop back on his bike to drive normally for a small distance. His bike would rattle once more, tiny flowers shake and the bike bell make the tiniest ringing sound, without him having his thumb near it.

A trail of old bricks lead to an old house hidden underneath the large trees. There was no light in the windows, no smoke from the chimney, but the front yard of the house looked taken care of, it wasn’t too overgrown with weeds after laying dormant for decades in this forest. Small bird baths and stone fountains were in the yard, although they had long dried out. Moss and grass grew out from between the old bricks that made up the buildings gate.

The visitor reached a rusting steel gate that could be opened, he passed his hand through the gaps to unlock it by simply sliding open a rusty bolt lock. It had nit been his first time here. 

Then he steered his bike through the gap of the gate, as far as it could go since the hinges had given out seemingly decades ago. Before him was a menacing, dull gray house, built of large brick as opposed to plain wood like any other forest shack. Iron bars barricaded the windows on the first floor, then proceeded by nailed boards underneath the same windows. It was a shame the mansion had fallen in such despair, once this could have been such a beautiful, rich family house.

The boy with the bike did not look shaken of such a remote abandoned place off into the woods, instead he looked excited, wide smile decorating a pretty face. He knocked on the door, holding the basket detached from his bike in his hands like a present.

There was a sound behind the door, ringing of keys, a heavy shifting sound and then a click. The boy heard footsteps run away from the other side of the door as soon as it was unlocked, he counted exactly five.

Dongho was the eldest adopted son of a local farmer family who made their living in town. He had discovered this spot on the hill many years ago while disobeying his parents and gone playing around the foothills, gathering cool pebbles, mistaking them for ambers, that had flowed downstream from a nearby stream which ran through a small ravine in the forest. 

Curious he followed it to see where it goes, only to discover suspicious amount of human activity in the apparently abandoned hills, like chopped down wood with signs it was done with a proper axe and not knocked by the wind. 

In the distance a weird shine sourced from inside a bark of a tree. Attracted by the unexplainable shiny apparition, the young Dongho neared it to realize it was caused by these strange shards of broken mirror pieces that sat posed on stumps of tree reflecting the light of the sky – in a trail of many, they looked like they were leading him somewhere. Before he knew it, he stood at the gates of this very same house.

Dongho waited a small moment, just like every other time he had come to visit, before opening the heavy door. Ahead was a hallway, windowless, pitch black and quite long. He shut and locked the door behind himself and only then he move to the other end of the hallway where another door awaited him.

He knocked again, and this time it was opened up to him by someone on the other side who would immediately hide behind it, waiting for Dongho to step in first. This door opened up to a big hall that looked much like a dining room with its ceiling so high the stairs that lead to the second floor formed a small balcony like structure at the top, overseeing place for a dining table below. Only a shadow remained where the table had once been, replaced by furniture more suit for a living room.

Some indirect sunlight came in though gaps of a large window, although it had been entirely covered up by layers of a dark, heavy curtain draping to the floor. Most of the light indoors came from candles, there were candles everywhere.

The door behind Dongho shut and he now smiled welcoming his friend who lived in this house all alone. 

Jonghyun appeared to be a same age as him, a young, tall man with wide shoulders, despite being emaciated for seemingly some time now. His skin was in an unnatural color, unlike the tan Dongho, he was as pale as snow, his sickly paleness would accentuate his dark hair and also dried, pinkish lips. But he still didn’t look a day older than those many springs ago when Dongho had first met him.

Back then, Jonghyun was nice to him and even invited him in, alas he was avoidant and nervous around the stranger. At that time, Dongho supposed that he was also an orphan living alone and forgotten in the house that his family had once owned. However that was not exactly true, 

Jonghyun had a curse. A curse that had made him flee from the sight of people out of guilt of hurting them, one that turned him into a blood thirsty monster who would prey necks of others. At the time, Kang did not understand – evermore so, he did not understand why his new friend was all of a sudden begging him to run, fear for his life.

It turned out, that the monster which the elders had described in tales to keep young children out of the mine filled forest – was this boy, Jonghyun was that monster. 

Dongho wasn’t scared of him, not one bit. The boy living all alone in this forest was kind and had the prettiest smile, alas it was sadly so rare. The first time Dongho had seen him smile, he fell in love with him.

Jonghyun still remained cautious around the other even despite his trust. Of course he wouldn’t ever want to hurt the young man on purpose, but he could not win over the curse that made him thirst for blood, live human blood. It was the only thing that could fill his stomach, without it he would starve and go crazy, actually feral – running off into the woods to kill animals or reach the edge of the town to pick off helpless farm animals. But the taste of human blood was the one thing he craved the most, and many times it had driven him hungry to the point he had done things he couldn’t forgive himself for.

On that day when Dongho had curiously knocked at his door, he had chosen to spare the clueless boy who had unknowingly marched into the arms of death. However the boy wasn’t afraid to come back once more, and from then on, every month or almost every other week Dongho would visit his new friend and trade things with him.

Jonghyun had a lot of valuables he kept in the old house, shiny trinkets, cracked wristwatches made of gold sometime last century, necklaces, pearls and crystals. Beside useless money, that was all that he had left behind. Dongho accepted small rings and pretty looking jewels, he bought them to town to pawn them off to other travelers and could later afford things for his younger siblings they needed for school, like clothing and fitting shoes. He had never attended school himself.

However luxury items weren’t the only thing Dongho traded with Jonghyun. Although it was something that the tallest man had grown to despise doing, he used his friend to feed. No matter how willing Dongho was to help him by giving him the smallest amount of blood, Jonghyun hated to hurt his own friend just to survive.

Jonghyun offered to carry the large basket Dogho had bought, but the guy wanted to be as courageous and strong as always, setting it down a creaky wood board table that was positioned in front of the antique kingly furniture.

Dongho didn’t even get to show the other man what goods he had bought in before Jonghyun had already caught his hands with his own to stop him from digging in too soon.

“Hang on, let me pay you first.” He grin.

At this point Dongho was shy to accept any sort of payment, he considered it all a good deed since Jonghyun lived so far away in the mountains and could not leave to shop on his own. 

“You haven’t even seen what I got.” He complained, faking a pout.

Jonghyun chuckled at his attempt to look upset, and went to retrieve the reward. It was a small item, but he supposed it alone was worth a fortune. He unveiled to the other a small porcelain and gold decorated box. Jonghyun had forgotten he even had stuff like this just laying around the place.

Donghos eyes went as big as a cats, he reached to open the lid of the box and almost jolt his hand back when he heard it made a sound. Jonghyun laughed and let him listen to a cheerful melody that it made when opened. A tiny mirror was placed inside.

“It’s a music box.” Jonghyun stated the obvious, smiling at his friends joyous reaction. “Woah, it still works!” Dongho was amazed, he had never heard one before play so well.

After listening to the tone loop twice, Dongho gave his friend a devious grin, “Shall we dance?” 

The other man found it silly, but he couldn’t resist the urge to move his feet either. The two tried to waltz around the room, but Jonghyun had long forgotten how and Dongho had never learned or even seen how. Their combined laughter is what made both of them more exhausted than the act of dancing itself. 

Before the end, Dongho did a graceful bow thanking the other for accepting his hand and returned to sitting on his now sore feet. Jonghyun narrowed his eyes and jokingly shook his head at the other after seeing the mans clumsy bow and shaky ankle.

The two sat again. “I might not sell it and keep it for myself.” Dongho teasingly waved the music box that was now his in hand, “It’s too much fun.”

Jonghyun agreed, that’s why he was happy to hand it off to him. “Do what you please with it.” He replied. “What did you bring me then?” His eyes began to scout the basket.

Dongho began to unload the said basket, happily introducing his friend to every item he had bought, using some of the money he had gotten by selling off Jonghyuns heirloom as well. However Jonghyuns eyes were instantly attracted by the potted cute flowers, Dongho nervously scratched his chin with his lone index finger.

“Those are—” Dongho started to explain and Jonghyun finished for him, “Flowers.” The boy stared at them in awe.

“You don’t really have any greenery inside the house, so I thought that a small pot would be a nice start.” He spoke shyly, as if he was suddenly embarrassed of his own idea.

“They are pretty.” Jonghyun thanked him, his fingers gently touching the petals of the brittle frail plant. Such a pity though, the flowers needed sunlight to survive, while Jonghyun was the opposite. He wished he had been born like the flower instead.

When Jonghyun had called the plant pretty, Dongho shot his eyes back up from previously staring at his on clasped hands in guilt, and began to stare at Jonghyun. His lips trembled in place suddenly wanting to speak, but he could not tell the tall man the truth. To him, Jonghyun was prettier than the flowers.

“Heh.” Dongho chuckled to himself, not wanting to give himself away on the spot like that. Jonghyun placed the pot back on the table.

Donghos busy hands went over the next thing that was in the basket of presents. A bundle of candles tied up with loose strings, a lighter that would last Jonghyun longer than the matches and so on.

However, the longer he spoke, the more Jonghyun zoned out from his speaking. Eventually Jonghyuns eyes became blurry around the corners, his vision narrowed and ears muted sound. He stared at his friends pretty plump lips that moved and smiled with every spoken word, from there Jonghyuns eyes traveled downwards to that neck which he could hardly resist attacking even now.

Jonghyun had spent many sleepless nights just trashing in his old bed, craving drinking from that neck. But it scared him, he knew if he ever took too much his friend would die – Dongho, his only friend. The only person who had ever been nice to him.

Abruptly, Jonghyun had stood up from his seat on the dusty leaning chair, purposely walking away from Dongho to try and suppress his urge to tear the man to the shreds and drink until the very last drop. Every time Dongho came by like this, it only got worse over time. He was getting too used to the taste of the man, so he feared losing his composure one day.

“Is something wrong?” Dongho worried for his friend. He could be so naïve and clueless, the guy got no clue.

“Sorry I am just—” Jonghyun paused, a nervous kick in his stomach had made his words hesitant to be said out loud.

“Hungry?” Dongho guessed it anyways. 

It was too hard for Jonghyun to suppress it, so he felt disappointed in himself whenever Dongho could notice it so easily. Jonghyun hated his friend seeing the side of him that was a monster. 

However, Dongho wasn’t even a little afraid of Jonghyun when he wanted to bite him. After all the man was always suffering because of his curse, and he was already used to giving Jonghyun his neck or wrist. The other times when Jonghyun refused him, Dongho had the force his friend to accept it against his will, knowing otherwise he would starve.

Jonghyun was already so weak and frail, it broke his friends heart to see the guy he loved be so unhappy with himself because of the curse. Dongho hoped that by sharing his neck he was making Jonghyun happy, but he did not realize that it did the opposite.

The cursed man just wanted to be normal, he didn’t want to feed off from his friend. He wished he could be different, so him and Dongho could spend more time together. If his wish came true, Dongho could show him the world outside, alas for decades now, Jonghyun had only seen the light of the sun in his dreams.

“Ah.” Dongho nodded, taking the awkward silence as the confirmation. His fingernails were already digging into the fabric of his pants over the knees, he always hated the sting.

By then, Jonghyun had stalled biting his friend by walking the room in a circle arriving at a large window that had been mostly covered up with the thickest curtains. A small gap of light reached through, and although it couldn’t hurt him, if he were to pulled the curtain wider and put his hand directly up against the glass, the rays of sun would boil his skin – another feat of his horrible curse.

Dongho looked up at the man before the curtain, his figure illuminated by the white light. Tiny speckles of dust slowly descending around him. This whole time he was longingly staring at the small gap of light reaching through. Dongho knew that the man was sad, deeply miserable with the way he had to live each day, but there was nothing he could do for him.

Seasons passed in a flash, but Jonghyun didn’t age. Cold or hot, his skin was numb to all of it since decades ago. Jonghyun had seen his friends and family grow old and pass away before his very eyes, everyone he loved had died a long time ago and he was simply left behind. 

Dongho wanted to tell him he loved him, but he had never spoken those words to anyone, he was scared silly. In just a few years he would pass the apparent age of Jonghyun, who’s body had frozen still in time, and Dongho would appear much older than him. So the man wanted to hurry, and tell him before the next winter, it was a promise he had made to himself.

“Dongho, how does it feel to touch the sunlight?” Jonghyun asked a fairly innocent question, even if it came out quite odd.

“The sunlight?” Dongho didn’t know the right words to describe the warmth of the sun to someone who had forgotten how nice it was. While, Jonghyun probably only associated it with fire, burning and death.

Dongho glanced at Jonghyun and seemingly right then he had found all the right words he was previously missing all while looking directly at him. 

“Its soothing, its so precious that it feels like it is holding you even when your far away. It is what makes the day so much more beautiful.” The man didn’t even realize that what he was describing was not sunlight, but Jonghyun.

Jonghyun listened carefully to the description the other man gave him, while not realizing he had subconsciously been reaching to hold the curtain, his fingers aching to feel the same warmth of the sun from his dreams. As a result, in direct sunlight the skin on his hand instantly spawned blisters and small smoke came from his hand. He flinched back, but not before Dongho had jumped from his seat to run over.

“Are you okay? Don’t do that!” Dongho scolded him, rushing to see his burnt hand, but Jonghyun hid it. It didn’t hurt anymore, and the blisters caused by the sun would fade away quickly. 

“I just wanted to try and feel it too.” He spoke in the saddest voice. Dongho knew what he meant by that, the man hoped that one day he would get cured and then he would be able to embrace the light on his skin just like everyone else lucky enough to.

Jonghyun turned away from the curtain, his hands tied around Donghos back for a hug, and cheek leaned up against the mans shoulder. Dongho stared ahead of himself with such an uneasy look on his face, knowing there was not much he could do to bring Jonghyun that light.

His hug was warm and calm. Jonghyun knew he shouldn’t hug the other, for he was cursed, but his heart wasn’t so simple. Despite the curse that made him no longer human, he still needed care and the ability to give same care to others.

Donghos heart beat quicker when pressed so close to the other man, soon the short man lost his worry and his face became relaxed while holding Jonghyun. He never felt so safe with anyone else, and he wanted to feel like he belonged in those arms that currently held him, no matter how cold and unnatural the touch of his skin was.

Jonghyun pulled back when remembering his hunger from a minute ago again, it was a constant nightmare reminding him that he was a monster and he did not deserve such affection. 

“I am sorry.” Jonghyun apologized, seemingly out of nowhere.

“For what?” Dongho saw his friends eyes sparkle, tiny tears appearing in the corners. He reached to wipe them with his thumbs and Jonghyun smiled it off, doing it himself.

Jonghyun didn’t mean to sniffle in front of his friend, he found it so shameful to cry before him, because Dongho always worried about the smallest things, while the tall man always hated to be the cause of that worry. 

“Nothing.” Jonghyun took it back just to please his friends ears. “It is not your fault, don’t be so hard on yourself.” Dongho gave him a nod and then another cheesy smile. 

Jonghyun could see the smitten look his friend was giving him right through. The man was so obvious, but he didn’t have a clue.

A pang hit Jonghyun in the chest, in less than a second Jonghyun had gone from wanting to stand in this sweetest place of comfort forever, to him wanting Dongho gone. The short man was getting attached, Jonghyun knew it wouldn’t be good if he ever did.

The tallest walked his friend backwards, surprising him by sitting him down onto the leaning chair. With the basket, came bandages and small first aid, but they were not for Jonghyun though. It was meant for Dongho to treat himself after the bite Jonghyun was about to give him.

Jonghyun wanted to do it now and get it over with quicker, that way Dongho would be gone sooner and Jonghyun could act alone again as the punishment for being cursed. Jonghyun thought, he didn’t deserve a friend this kind.

The guy leaned over Dongho who had began to shake a little, his breaths odd and hallow. “Are you ready?” He spoke, holding back sadness.

Once comfortable enough, Dongho took his biggest breath yet and spoke, “Yeah, I am.”

Jonghyun blinked slow, his eyes narrowed trying to keep himself from showing too much of a frown. Dongho always insisted how he didn’t mind being bit, and in fact he wanted for Jonghyun to do this to him. He would do anything his friend asked of him, and knowing that, Jonghyun didn’t want to fight him about it this time either.

“Jonghyun.” Dongho breathed out the name of the other, staring at him with the loveliest eyes. By that point his friend was already gone – Jonghyun had become a roaring monster. Yet even like this, Dongho still liked him.

The tall man slashed his razor sharp teeth into the side of Donghos neck. The short man twitched upon the impact if the stab, but soon a calm numbing feeling washed over him. He stared up at the tall, dark ceiling of the old creaky house, his eyes became blurry and empty and soon they became shut.

Jonghyuns eyes were opened unrealistically wide and they shined with crimson red, a grunt escaped his throat which came out sounding more like an animalistic roar. While in this state, he could suddenly feel every vein, every vessel of blood in Donghos body pulsating to the beat of his hurried heart. A tint of red covered his vision, Jonghyun had lost his mind like an animal in a fight.

Minutes had passed and Jonghyun finally stopped the assault, yet what he had done was setting in quickly. He wiped his trembling lips now stained with the blood of the other, then reviewed it coating his shaky fingertips. They shined coated in deep red, it was horrifying for him. Jonghyuns vision was still shaky, and everything past his own raised hand was a blur.

Dongho parted his eyes, but just barely. A copper smell was in the air, it took a while for him to realize it was his own. Disorientated and dizzy he looked for Jonghyuns shape in the room that now appeared to him darken than it had been before.

He tried to mutter words, but only a ghastly groan passed his pale lips. Jonghyun lowered his ear to hear his whispers, eventually he understood that this whole time Dongho had been silently calling out his name. 

Suddenly there was a distance in between the two, Jonghyun had said nothing in return and Dongho was asleep.

Water inside of a wash basin had been dyed with red. Loose strands of cut bandages descended to the floor like feathers of a bird, caused to fall by an occasional snip of a scissor. The neck of Dongho had been fixed by the other while he stayed fainted from blood loss. 

From there, a newfound strength in Jonghyuns body let the frail looking boy pick up the other body of the much more larger man like it was nothing. Jonghyun carried him to his own bedroom to there make the limp body sleep comfortably with a pillow and under a blanket to compensate for the loss of heat.

Jonghyun wanted to leave the man alone, but the strength that was just filling his newly energized body was gone as soon as he had to think about abandoning his friend alone in here. He sat on the bed with his legs crossed, Dongho laid in his lap with a blanket pulled over him, all while Jonghyun gently combed the mans hair with his fingers, it was his way of saying sorry.

The tallest traced the shell of his friends earlobe, tucking a loose strand of hair behind him. When with Jonghyun, Dongho slept like he had been put under a spell. Occasionally he would open his eyes and stare at his friend or even grin. His face was loving and gentle – Jonghyun had hurt him, but Dongho was still making such a pleased face.

Only one guess made sense to him, “Dongho perhaps, do you love me?” He asked. The sleepy eyes of the other would only blink like he hadn’t understand the question, and then they sank back closed again.

In his sleep, Dongho removed Jonghyuns hand from his scalp and instead hugged it to his cheek, laying on the mans palm like a pillow. Jonghyun supposed that this was the answer to his question, the man already loved him, it was too late.

Jonghyun became regretful, thinking Dongho should not have bonded with a monster, because it was so dangerous. The cursed man himself knew that letting another person near him would be deadly, but regardless, he had allowed Dongho to stay by his side for this long. Maybe that meant that he was in love with him too.

Jonghyun slouched his spine, a sudden stab of pain sourced again from his chest, he held in a quiet sob.

The man gently slid out from under the sleeping Dongho, placing a pillow under his friends head and left to aimlessly wander his own house in the spare time until the injured man would regain full consciousness. 

A lantern light quick in the dark, producing small yellow glow that would not reach too far inside of a room. He exited the previous room and walked a corridor of the old, windowless house that his nocturnal curse had bound him to. 

Once it had belonged to his family, but Jonghyun had outlived them all, now their old graves laid in the backyard, the stone of their aged tombstones crumbling into dust with each gust of moving wind.

Jonghyun turned a corner, old creaking floorboards would weight down under his feet threatening to snap with each new step. This part of house was always dark, a gush of cold air flowed from the ceiling above where the attic was, filling these rooms with chill cold. To his right was a room with keys left in the lock, Jonghyun turned it and entered it next. The room was empty and without much furniture, the only thing there was a large glass cabinet which was meant for housing decorative dishes and expensive silverware, but nowadays they housed different items.

Jonghyun opened the glass doors to look inside. Among the items there were cracked wristwatches, bracelets and rings. All the items were similarly covered in stains of old, dried blood – it was a shrine for Jonghyuns victims. 

He took small things from the people he had hurt to remember them and constantly remind himself of the cost of staying alive.

People did go missing in these hills, the old tales grandparents used to scare the young were all true. Even though Jonghyun didn’t mean to hurt anyone when his hunger took over, he never realized what he was doing until he had already done it. The man mourned each of his victims who were unlucky enough to step a foot in the cursed forest.

Dongho knew about the things Jonghyun had done in order to survive, but even after having been shown the relics of Jonghyuns victims, he did not fear him. He still saw his friend as a kindest person, someone who wouldn’t even hurt a fly, instead it was his evil curse that forced him to do things Jonghyun didn’t want to do.

This was ironic, considering that Dongho was the only person that Jonghyun had managed to spare. Maybe back then his humanity took over his primal instinct, once seeing that Dongho was still so young, or perhaps it was because the young man was so nice to him and Jonghyun had never experienced any kindness.

The man knew this could not last forever though, no matter how hard he cared for Dongho, his bloodlust was always there threatening to take away from Jonghyun the one thing he still cared for. He feared the thought of ever hurting Dongho, so he decided that maybe from now on he should turn the man away whenever he came to his house, even if it hurt them both to be apart.

Before Jonghyun closed the glass doors of the shrine and headed back, he clasped his hands and mimicked a prayer, giving himself a minute to mourn the original owners of these bloodied items of remembrance.

By the time Dongho was not faint anymore and could stand, the sun had already gone down. Jonghyun could be in the doorway leading directly to outside, but he was yet afraid to walk far away from the house, not wanting to be seen by anyone else but his one trusted friend.

The bitten man smiled at him, “I’ll be back over soon.” He promised, but this time Jonghyun couldn’t smile back.

A short moment later, just before Dongho could turn away and ride his bike home before his family throws a fit at him for sneaking out late again, Jonghyuns ice cold hand grabbed his wrist.

The gloomy man stared down, his long bangs drooping over his eyes. “Maybe,” He stuttered in a voice that made Dongho alert, “Don’t come back.” Every part of his heart broke into pieces having to request this.

“What do you mean?” Dongho was afraid he didn’t understand, did even Jonghyun really mean it by saying this. Jonghyun then looked up to gaze into his eyes directly, right then and there Dongho realized – yes, he did mean it.

“Leave me,” Jonghyun spoke with a voice more confident than the last to confirm the other mans biggest fear of abandonment, “I cant keep you around for any longer.”

The short man already knew all the right reasons, it was only because Jonghyun considered himself a bloodthirsty monster who could end Donghos short life at any moment. However, Dongho showed no sign of fear, he knew Jonghyun would never do it to him willingly. Even with the risk of it actually happening, he was ready to take it.

“But without me, you will starve out here!” Dongho snapped back at Jonghyun, he didn’t think he could manage by just feeding off from random living things in the forest, like rabbits and birds, after he had already grown accustomed to the neck of his.

Jonghyun didn’t want to reveal it straight to Donghos face, but he had already decided that was indeed his plan. The man had thought about walking right out into the sun and ending his horrible curse at least a hundred thousand times already, but until now he wasn’t ever brave enough to. He thought that suffering slowly and by starving would be easier than a horrifying instant heat death.

Now that Jonghyun realized he had become attached to this person, and the other had become attached to him too – he had no other choice. Dongho was young and full of life which he was wasting on someone like Jonghyun, who had cheated death by living for decades over the normal lifespan of a normal living person.

They were not meant to be, Jonghyun accepted that as a fact. A fact that made him willing to die.

“Why are you being like this! Say something!” Dongho yelled at Jonghyun who had been silent and kept silent even now. 

“I don’t want to leave you alone.” Dongho desperately bargained with the other.

Jonghyun faced away no longer being able to look at the sad man whose eyes were filled to the brim with tears. Dongho dropped everything he had been holding to rush into a hug, but Jonghyun pushed him off harshly.

“Just go, I won’t change.” He told Dongho the words that the short man did not want to hear. 

“I don’t want you to change.” Dongho cried, “The way you are right now, I accept it.”

Jonghyun shook his head to dismiss him, the other man didn’t realize that it was not a matter of acceptance right now. Sooner or later Jonghyun would snap and murder him, it was not in his control so if it did happen Jonghyun would never be able to live with himself. Out of his love for him – this was a goodbye.

No matter how Dongho tried to reach out and force his friend into a hug. Jonghyun kept pushing him back, he stepped out from indoors forcing him to pick up things he had dropped and almost had shoved Dongho to the gate.

The short man sobbed, “Why?” He thought it was too sudden, without a cause. Jonghyun was his friend second ago, but now he was enraged, flashing his fangs and yelling so loud his breaths were like hissing to scare him off.

“You know why.” Jonghyun gave him no clear answer, he purposely acted beastlike to scare Dongho back into the dark forest. 

If Jonghyun wanted to, he could rip a person to nothing but shreds out in the woods, leading the ones finding the corpse to believe that a mine had caused it rather than a beast. He made this apparent when he began to dash at Dongho in hopes he would make the man run.

Dongho hopped on his bike and began to desperately swirl down the sneaky forest trail. Yet he was not running from the monster that was chasing him from behind running at superhuman speeds, but instead he was running from the heartbreak. Dongho lost his breath trying to get away, eyes wide into the pitch black nothingness below.

Weeks had passed, the forest path grew shut with weeds and the old mansion that stood lone in the woods no longer looked so decorated from the front. Falling yellow tree leaves collected in the bird baths, puddles of mud buried the brick path that would guide any stranger upon the discovery of finding the house behind the thick brushwood.

Dongho had never showed up as he promised, yet Jonghyun couldn’t help, but stand at the window and look for his coming. The sun punished him for missing the man, his face was healing from the blisters caused by him blindly running outside whenever he thought he had heard the distant bike bell ringing. He supposed that the guy must have come to his senses, and he wished he could do too.

Jonghyun hadn’t eaten anything in days, his hunger had grown to the point where even the mice chewing under the floorboards of the old creaking house made him consider breaking apart the ground just to get even the smallest fix of blood. But he held himself from drinking, because as promised he wanted to pass away by starvation – end this horrible curse that kept him from the one he loved too much.

Behind the dust tinted windows, his gentle fingers pet the tiny petals of the flower his friend had gifted him on their last meeting. He had watered it well, made sure there was plenty of sun for it to grow and thrive. He put the pot down in its spot on the window sill and left to lay back down in his bed, close his eyes and skip days as they were mere minutes. He was immortal, and when also combined with immense loneliness, the time meant nothing to him anymore.

Night came in a flash, Jonghyun slept through it. Silent rain trickled down the aged window panes, tapping from outside like the knocks of certain someone. Another bad dream – an illusion created by Jonghyuns starved mind, he told himself.

But a louder thud woke him up completely, rumbling and noises of breaking wood lead Jonghyun straight to the conclusion of there being a house break in. It was not the first time this had happened, Jonghyun told himself to be ready before heading outside of his bedroom.

Despite his promise to no longer cause harm to anyone, in such a state he was no longer thinking straight, in fact he couldn’t think at all when he heard the sound of a heart beat through the walls. A vision covered in a veil of red made him to armor his claws and his long fangs. A robber would be an easy target to feed on, and Jonghyun was starving to death. 

He found the stranger in his living room, but he didn’t recognize it’s face, all he saw was a figure containing warm, pulsating blood that could fix his painful thirst. It was as if he could see through their skin, see each and every vein that ran through their body. 

Without thinking Jonghyun jumped to attack them, a roar escaped his throat and a chair in the room fell as he charged at the stranger. A brief flash of light coming from the strangers torch showed their true face in the dark. Jonghyuns brain didn’t process it at first, until it was already too late and he had slashed the persons throat with his devilishly sharp fangs. 

There wasn’t a scream, not even a yelp or a sound of surprise. Dongho had done this on purpose, he had snuck in knowing that Jonghyun would not recognize him before attacking.

Dongho couldn’t ever leave Jonghyun, just as he had said, he wanted to stay with him forever no matter what. He also knew that the only way it could be done was only if Jonghyun shared his curse with him, but how could the man ever agree to do it, because Jonghyun wouldn’t wish the same fate as him to anyone, let alone someone he loved so dearly.

Dongho figured that for that matter, he needed to trick Jonghyun – find a way to harm himself to the point of near death, so Jonghyun would have no choice, but to afflict him with the same immortality.

Jonghyun held the mans head from laying on the floor and cried over him, his hunger all gone in an instant. Despite blood dripping over his lips, Dongho still smiled ever so brightly at Jonghyun dying in his arms. Even if Jonghyun would choose not to curse him, the man was happy. He had lived for a little bit, and then he was gone, but in that time which he had been given, he had met and loved the person named Jonghyun.

Sobs and panic came from Jonghyun as he begged his friend not to die, to just stop dying. There was nothing to make it stop. Yet the other man was not regretful, until Dongho was about to draw his last breath, he still gazed into the eyes of his friend with nothing, but compassion and kindness.

Dongho mouthed what seemed to be his final words of goodbye to the other, his voice was shaking and weak, devoid of any breath left in his lungs. 

“I loved you.” He admit in past tense, ready to die.

“I love you, I love you!” Jonghyun yelled, trying to convince his friend to stay with the sweetest of words imaginable. Despite him screaming them all out in horror, the glassy eyed Dongho still happily grinned at the reveal.

Jonghyun began to frantically shake his head, nodding no to the other to tell him to stay a little longer. His cries became louder, his bloodied fingers clawed and scratched at his friend to wake him back up. There were no actual sounds around him, but in his head he heard the war drums picking up only to come an abrupt halt.

Dongho had closed his eyelids. Jonghyun went silent, even his heart had stopped its beat for a moment in shock.

The tall man reached his shaking hand to caress Donghos pretty eyelashes, he held in his breath as he did so. Dongho slept so peacefully it looked like merely a nap. The man had once said that he always loved to doze off in the sun on his laziest days, so Jonghyun believed that in just a few moments he should be up and running, filling Jonghyuns ears with his beautiful giggles. Yet even after long minutes they never came, and that meant he was truly gone.

Jonghyuns face had gone static, his mind void in an instant after losing his reason of being.

In an instant Jonghyun dipped his fangs back into Donghos neck, but this time instead of sucking the remaining blood, he had bitten his own tongue beforehand and was using his fangs to poison the still warm veins of his friend, enough to share his curse onto him. He didn’t think before doing it first anymore, not a thought had passed through his head before the single idea of being able to see Dongho laugh and smile again.

Over a puddle of red still spreading far across the flooring of the room, the two bodies hugged closely. Jonghyun held the other mans fingers in a tight grip, muttering million apologies into his ears.

On a night windier than most, a heavy storm hit the hillside with no sign of the harsh rains stopping. A lonely car sped down the mountain road, it’s window sweepers struggled against the wind to clean the windshield from the waterfall raining down the hood. 

Radio chatter would be interrupted every few seconds at a time, flickering from loud static to distorted voices. Frustrated, the driver shut the sound off to try and focus on following the dark road instead, even though he couldn’t see a darn thing out there.

The driver gasped at what had suddenly appeared ahead of him, the headlights of his car flashed before the trunk of a tree that had come out of nowhere. The car violently swerved to the right to dodge, nose-diving straight into a bank of a shallow ravine. The man driving had been strapped in, both hands gripping the wheel – he exhaled in relief realizing that the car had not rolled any deeper than it already had, but now it had stopped and wouldn’t start again. Something was under it, rendering it stuck.

Instead of panicking he only became more pissed off about his already shitty day somehow still going from bad to worse. He ended up unstrapping himself to swipe on bright display on his phone, looking for anyone he could call for help. A hiss of distress came from his mouth when he saw the low battery warning flash before the same light went from bright to a null. 

With no help out here he had no choice, but to head outside into the storm to try and attract other cars passing on the same road he had fallen off from.

However, much to his already horrid luck, no other cars were to be seen after he had made it all the way up there. The wind was only picking up and it seemed like there was no point in just waiting for any help on the side of the road. Desperate and soaked to the bone he began to consider walking, as he had previously seen a small town crossing an abandoned railway somewhere on the map while passing by the area.

After walking for a few minutes alongside the road, he decoded to detour and ended up blindly going into the woods believing he had seen a light. As he neared it, the source of light turned out to be just a small piece of broken mirror hanging on a string from a tree, reflecting light from elsewhere. It was just there, shaking in the wind by itself.

The man frantically grabbed his large lense photo camera from his bag to take a picture of the eerie find, but his wet fingers made it slip from his hand and plunge into the mud at his feet. He cursed in two different languages before picking it back up, letting the rain wash away the dirt to reveal no visible sign of damage.

The man decided to just screw it all and kept walking the same direction. It was not far until he saw a light again, a real one this time. He hurried his step and ended up at a cottage standing in the middle of the thick woods. Small candle glow was coming from the windows, with thick curtains there preventing him from seeing who’s home. 

The place was so bizarre, it seemed almost abandoned, but it appeared that someone had to have lived here for a long time, evident by the garden surrounding the gate and the pots of flowers outlining a brick path to the main gate. Yet no landlines were reaching to an old house, instead near the front door there was a quiet hum of a fuel powered generator to be heard.

He knocked in the door, cold and shivering, hiding his frostbitten hands in his pockets and stomping his feet to push heat down to his toes. 

The front door opened soon, it was like he had finally seen light for the first time in ages, it shined on his heavily relieved face. The night visitor was a short, scraggy man, with soft facial features. He wasn’t a local or anyone that looked like from around here, he probably had traveled here far from another city state.

The man at the door faced two other young men living inside, both of them were giving each other guilty looks that the stranger at the door happened to miss. He was simply too glad to get any help tonight.

“I am sorry for knocking on the door so late at night. My car died down the road, is it possible that I could step in until the storm stops and to charge my phone?” He apologized to the pair.

The tallest of the two men from the house hesitated, his hand already rest on the door handle ready to shut it and turn the man away back on his travels. The stranger could sense that his presence was not wanted and in hurry he began to speak more about the reason he had gone up these hills. 

“I’m actually a journalist, I am writing about the number of human disappearances within this area in the past few years.” He added.

The two men glanced at one another and then back at their visitor. They stepped aside making a gap in the middle, big enough for the rain drenched man to squeeze in through the door. He thanked them a dozen times while stepping in.

The heavy wood door shut closed behind him with a thud.


End file.
